Members of Undergraduate Student Government Downtown focused on new initiatives and approved more than $29,000 in funding requests during the semester’s first Senate meeting Friday.
The largest funding request on the budget was for the safety escort trolley, Downtown Safety Shuttle, run by the the company that owns Ollie the Trolley. In discussion about the funding, College of Public Programs Sen. Ryan Boyd, who is also chair of the Government Operations Committee, brought questions to the table regarding the allocation of the funds and if it would be less expensive to hire another ASU Police Aide instead.
Ultimately, the request was approved for $26,000.
Vice President of Services Corina Tapscott emphasized her plans to support the Sun Devil Coalition, increase traffic to the student center in the Post Office and help student organizations with funding tools like Square, a mobile app that would help with fundraising.
Sally Lopez, vice president of policy, gave an update on an upcoming “policy app” which hopes to register students as voters and inform students of government policies. The app is being developed in conjunction with state Sen. Bob Worsley.
Returning President Frank Smith mentioned five priorities he discussed with ASU President Michael Crow. They included the allocation of $10 million dollars from the new athletic fee.
Smith said the money will be spent on areas students value most like test-preparation classes, students who are also veterans, transfer students and pay raises for teaching assistants and research assistants.
Furthermore, Smith discussed updating the Downtown campus library with some of the money. He said the current library was “not up to par” and has been in the waiting for 10 years.
Smith announced plans for four forums with Crow. Two would be formal and two would be informal and they would be held across all campuses to ensure all students could attend a forum.
Smith also said he hopes to encourage wellness this year by proposing a redesign to the ASU 101 course, adding in alcohol-poisoning training to students. He said he believes the addition will help inform students and help them if the situation ever arises.
Additionally, students on the Downtown campus now have access to an online version of The New York Times and physical copies of the newspaper are no longer providied to students. This change saved $20,000, according to Smith.
The meeting’s funding requests also included a $75.18 request from the DPC Veteran’s Club for business cards and $3,288.45 for DPC Aware. The two organizations’ funding requests were granted.
Four Senate bills and one Senate resolution were passed; they regarded minor edits and corrections to the bylaws, enforcement behind the bylaws and the addition of an online template for legislation available to any student online.
Alhough he has been critical in the past, Boyd said he is looking forward to the progress USGD has shown thus far.
“I’m looking forward to debating the issues and getting things done,” Boyd said.
Tapscott said she was most looking forward to “focusing on the initiatives” and student organizations to help USGD have a successful year.
Contact the reporter at Cassidy.Trowbridge@asu.edu
